


A Letter Most Sincere

by mimsical



Series: there is a house by the sea and an ocean between it and me [2]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen, Letters, M/M, Pre-Relationship, Trans Character, Trans Dirk Strider, awkward teenagers are awkward
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-08
Updated: 2017-09-08
Packaged: 2018-12-25 05:41:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,076
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12029349
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mimsical/pseuds/mimsical
Summary: The envelope you recognize immediately and snatch up, embarrassed. “I’m going to stick this with my other old letters,” you say, trying for casual, and pitch it overhand into one of the open boxes.or: so what was in that envelope that dirk hid? [companion piece tochapter 3 of an ocean between.]





	A Letter Most Sincere

**Author's Note:**

> they're 15 here

8th of the 11th month

Dear Jake, 

I’ve been sitting on this letter for a week in a state of atypical stupefied terror, because I have something to figure out how tell you. And, by nature of the subject, I have to write with some equally atypical sincerity. Buckle down, it’s time for some honest to fuck unfiltered feelings bullshit. 

Fuck. I’m going to get cold feet. My nerves are doing such a tap-dance that they’re liable to leap right out of my body. Start their own amateur troupe on my desk. Probably recruit their friends and families to come watch them perform. Everyone claps politely for each number even though really they’re just mediocre dancers. One of them twists an ankle and has to sit out and they’re real fucking pissed about that, they were supposed to have a solo in the finale and now their snotty little understudy gets the spotlight. If there’s little inky footprints on this letter you’ll know who the culprits were. 

Alright. So, I’m a boy. Shocking, right. What a shitty twist. You don’t get to be the only flashy peacock surrounded by your demure little peahens anymore, because, actually this is a shitty metaphor. Roxy’s flashier than either of us and nobody with half a brain would ever call Jane demure. Um. But I’ve talked to them already. Roxy and Jane I mean. They know about this. I’m engaged in the slow but steadily improving in success rate at getting them to call me by my new name. Which is Dirk. It’s a good one, right? A good name, I mean. Just the right name to be suited for a cool dude who definitely knows what he’s doing. 

Which I do. I know what I’m doing. Been thinking about this for a while with different levels of denial. I’ll just get the awkward questions out of the way — I’m getting the dude-ifying sigils written on me three times a week by the school nurse, will probably get them tattooed in the spring or summer. It’s a fucking hassle, let me tell you. These stupid sigils have to be scribed on my spine in the most inconvenient place possible. Like, perfectly designed to be unreachable by my own hands, what the fuck. I get the whole try it out and be certain you like the physical changes thing but I am going to throw a celebration once I don’t need to reapply them. 

And yeah, someday I’m going to go to a doctor about, like. Fixing my chest, if you follow what I mean. Eventually, not immediately, because who the fuck wants to deal with a double physical and magical recovery from surgery during the most intense part of term. Not me, anyway. The best doctor for it is a couple towns over so I’ll have to petition the school to let me use a bit of the money my brother left me that they hold in reserve until we graduate for the traveling fees, but I don’t think they’d have any reason to withhold it. Hell, maybe they’ll pay for it themselves. I don’t really want to talk about this more, so if you could refrain from bringing it up unless I do for whatever reason, that would be great. Thanks in advance. 

Right. Well, that’s most of it. I’m going to send this letter and go tell the girls they don’t have to awkwardly sidestep talking about me in their letters anymore. Hope to hear good things from you, I guess. ~~Please~~ Don’t take too long in getting back to me? I think I might go puke my guts out from stress before I go talk to Jane and Rox. 

Anyway. Hope things are still going good for you out on the other side of the goddamn planet. ~~We all miss you.~~

Your friend, 

Dirk Strider 

(Middle names are still dumb in my humble fuckin’ opinion.) 

 

* * *

 

9th of the 11th month but barely. I think were just a few minutes after midnight?

Dear Dirk, 

First of all before i forget i wanted to share with you some excellent news that i have just received some four hours ago. I have my return date! Youll see my face again come the 28th. In time for our birthdays! Not that i havent been having a rollicking knockout of a good time off on this term abroad but its getting a little tiresome to be fumbling through translation sigils constantly. Those things wear through so fast its totally nuts you’d think i was having them scribed on me in pencil and not half tattooed from sheer constant reapplication. It’s also tiresome to be separated from my good friends the lovely ladies and of course not to be forgotten the best most handsome of fellas of a best friend i could ever ask for. 

You silly goose! What the hell were you fretting about so terribly? All this worry as if id never seen someone change their mind about gender before. Im very glad to know this important information about you and shall of course endeavor to be the most supportive buddy i can possibly be. Its only the right thing to do and id be not even a fraction of the gentleman i try to establish claim to being if i was a jerk about it. I think dirk is a right splendid fucking name, a real classic name for a real cool guy. 

Also you forgot to send me the scores from your fencing match. Come on dirk youre supposed to be enabling me to live vicariously through you since i cant be betting on them in person. And dont give me any of that crap about how betting nickels and cents amongst my fellow schoolmates isnt real gambling. It counts and you know it. 

Well i am practically asleep over my lap desk but i want to send this letter before i really slip off to the sweet shores of sleep so youll stop pacing your dorm like a zoochotic wildcat. But i will try to impress on you once more before sending this off that its really fine. Im glad to have you as my friend be you whatever gender you think is best. Besides i think it could be fun and an interesting change to have another boy around. We will see soon enough. On the 28th! Mark your calendar.

Your most sincere and devoted friend, 

Jake 

**Author's Note:**

> why do they write in green and orange, you ask? well, dirk's been determinedly writing everything in orange for the past month because he likes how it looks. can you stop, it's too light to read easily, roxy complains. no. dirk will not be stopped. jake just happened to find a green pen on the ground earlier and likes how it writes. 
> 
> on a more serious note: i wanted to address transness more in-depth in an ocean between than i did in the last fic. i knew that this was how dirk told jake, and i wanted to write something from their schooldays, so. here you go.


End file.
